


Welcome to The Company!

by hells_intern



Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Gen, God - Freeform, Heaven, Hell, Humor, Multi, Other, Purgatory, Satan - Freeform, internship goes to shit, shitty secretaries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 12:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6567181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hells_intern/pseuds/hells_intern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Welcome to AfterLife Co.™! Even though the newest intern claims she doesn't work here(And of course she does! We pay her! ... I think.), she'll soon fit right in! Hopefully.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

A woman still in college stood outside the office's building, clutching her light pink messenger bag hanging by her side. She pushed against the door uncertainly and- wait, it didn't move. What the heck? She frowned and pushed harder before realizing that it was a 'pull' door. Wow, we're not even a full paragraph in and our heroine has already fucked up.

Embarrassed, she quickly strode into the building. She walked towards the secretary's desk, her black boots making soft clicks throughout the silent hallway. The three identical people behind the desk didn't notice her, continuing their work. One was typing away on the computer before them as another was furiously scribbling away at the papers surrounding them. The last one was building a T-Rex out of office supplies. Clearly, they were all doing something very important. 

The girl's step faltered as she approached the desk. They still hadn't acknowledged her presence. For a few seconds, she just stood there awkwardly. After a sudden bit of courage flooded through her, she cleared her throat.

The person behind the computer glanced up at her. "Yes?" 

"I'm, um, here for my first day of the internship?" 

"Name?"

Wow, did these people only talk with just one word? "Ellie Walters."

They began to type something else on the screen. Ellie took this time to try to figure out distinguishing features to tell the what-she-assumed-were-triplets apart.

The one who had finished making the office supply T-Rex had a lighter shade of green eyes then their siblings, and seemed to have slightly wavier blonde hair that otherwise looked exactly the same as the others.

The sibling surrounded by piles of paper had their nails painted a dark red. Compared to the others, this one was taller by a centimeter. Their suit was a bit more ruffed up then the others'. You wonder why...

The one that was currently searching for you on the system had the darkest eyes out of all of them as well as the lightest hair. Their perfectly straight hair only went to their jaw, just like their siblings. Somehow, they managed to look more serious then their siblings.

"Everything looks fine on here."

They slid a card towards her. Wondering what exactly she was supposed to do with it, Ellie picked it up to examine it. It was a simple white card with golden writing that read: Employee #5728

Ellie frowned. She didn't work here. Honestly, the only reason she was here was because her college major required her to. 

"Why does it say employee-" "This card will let you access any of the floors in the building, besides the very top floor. You're only allowed in there if the boss requests your presence."

That was rude. Ellie did her best not to glare at the person before her. Come to think of it, she didn't even know this person's gender.

"I'm sorry, but why dies it say I'm an emplo-" "You better hurry up to the break room. I heard there's a welcome party." 

The sibling playing with another office supply dinosaur they made butted in as Ellie tried to restate her sentence. Their voice was slightly higher then the other's."Wasn't that supposed to be a surprise?"

The computer sibling shrugged. "Oops."

Ellie decided it'd be best to just ask someone else. She stuffed the card in her green jacket's pocket. Glancing around, she noticed an elevator with a large sign next to it on the wall. 'Well, guess I better head to the break room,' she thought, internally complaining about the secretaries the whole trip to the elevator.

Giving the sign a quick once over, Ellie quickly found where the break room was located. 'Floor 3'. She realized the office only had four floors once she entered the elevator. 'Huh,' she thought, 'that's weird. It looks a lot taller then just four floors from the outside.' Maybe the floors were just very big? Shrugging, she pressed the '3' button. A few minutes later, a 'ding' alerted her she was at her destination.

'Guess it's time to met the company.'

 

 

((A/N: This story has no plot what-so-ever, and is really more of a 'shits-and-giggles' kind of story. Sorry to anyone who expected a story!))


	2. Chapter 2

The door opened to reveal... three woman who looked exactly her age, if not older. They stared at her in surprise. For some reason, one of them was lying on the floor. A lone red balloon fell gently to the floor. The blonde woman sitting on one of the tables suddenly jumped up, almost tripping over one of the many, many blue streamers covering the room.

"Surprise!"

She skidded slightly on the millions of rainbow confetti covering the floor before straightening herself once more. Giving an embarrassed grin, she held out her hand to Ellie.

"Hello! My name is Laurel!"

Unsure, Ellie shook the girl's hand and took a moment to look her over. Like the secretaries, she had blonde hair. However, her's was shoulder length and wavier then the triplets. Her eyes were a mixture of blue and green, and they held a feeling of peacefulness and friendship. Laurel's outfit was a knee-length skirt and button-up black shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Her outfit was completely full of neutral colors besides the red leather jacket over her shoulders.

The woman standing by the table Laurel had previously occupied began to approach the two, followed by the woman who was previously lying on the floor. The more serious-looking of the two held her hand out to Ellie, too.

"My name's Anna. Pleasure to met you." That's an unusual name, but Ellie simply continued to smile and shook Anna's hand. So far these people seemed pretty normal compared to the triplets. Like she did with Gabriela, Ellie took in her appearance.

Anna had black hair pulled into a ponytail. Her eyes were a dark brown and she wore a simple purple framed glasses. Unlike Laurel, Anna's outfit was made of shades of white and gold. She wore a gold-colored blouse with a white undershirt and black dress pants. Her earrings were golden with some type of white gem that Ellie couldn't identify.

Anna stepped aside for the final woman. Ellie was already raising her hand to met the other woman's.

"Name's Martina," the final woman said, shaking Ellie's hand.

Martina was wearing a black sweater with a strange, circular symbol in a dark red. She had on grey dress pants the covered her feet and a bright red bow tie as well. As she stepped away back to Anna's side, Ellie caught a glimpse of her pair of worn Converse. Martina's hair was a bit above shoulder length and was very curly. She had brown eyes that were almost black and black eye frames that looked like they belonged to a hipster.

As she stood next to the other two, Ellie took note of how Martina was the shortest. 

A moment of awkward silence passed after Ellie finished her observations.

"So, uh... Nice party."

Anna awkwardly scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, sorry that there wasn't any others here."

"Could we even fit every employee in here?" Laurel whispered to Martina, though Ellie could hear her clearly.

"No. Trust me, I tried." was Martina's only response. Anna glanced at the girls behind her back.

"Anyway!" Anna said, clasping her hands together. "Let's get you settled in your new office, shall we?"

Ellie frowned, remembering the card. "About that. It says 'employee' on my card when I'm actually-"

Martina grabbed her arm, cutting Ellie off. She rushed to the elevator, dragging the poor 'intern' behind her. 

The other two followed calmly. Ellie glanced at the control panel as Laurel pressed the '4' button. Wait, she thought, isn't that the boss's office?

She did her best to wiggle her arm out of Martina's grasp and failed. With her arm still in Martina's grip, she asked, "Why are we going to the top floor? Isn't that the boss's office?"

Anna hummed. "Technically yes, but to get to your office, we need to go through the top level."

Well that seemed stupid. Why not just put it on the elevator instead of forcing people to walk through a different level to get to their office? Talk about design flaw.

Laurel seemed to read her mind. "The level your office is in was installed a few years after we got this building. We'd add it in, but everyone's just too busy."

Oh. Ellie guessed that made sense. The group spent the next five minutes in comfortable silence before the door opened with a soft 'ding'.

As the doors opened, a blinding light flooded in the elevator. Ellie instinctively covered her arms, her left arm still being held hostage by the shorter woman. The others around her didn't seem fazed by the light, except Martina who did flinch slightly. When Ellie could see properly again, they were still in the same position as they were when she was blinded as though they've done this a million times. Perhaps they have.

Turning her gaze to the room before them, Ellie sucked in a breath. The room was pure white, with people rushing around everywhere, yet somehow not chaotic in any way. There were desks that were also pure white with others taping away on their computers. Sometimes there were bookshelves in random places that looked like they stretched on forever. 

And the people themselves. Some looked completely normal with just an odd glowing circle following them around while others had multiple limbs or eyes or both. Some even had multiple mouths! Sometimes Ellie didn't know if certain employees even counted as human.

"Wh-where... where are we?"

"Welcome to the Heaven department."

"Heaven?" Ellie was so confused. Martina began to drag her along once more as the group made their way across the floor. One of the employees noticed them and gave a small wave to Ellie. Unsure, Ellie waved back.

"Hey Jello!" Laurel called as they passed said employee.

"Jello?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Nothing." What kind of name is Jello?

Finally the gang came to another set of doors, much more fancier then the elevators. Ellie then realized that the doors lead to another elevator. Why...?

Deciding that it was probably best not to question it, Ellie raised her foot to step in, only to be stopped by an arm. Confused, Ellie looked up at the owner, Martina. 

"You can't just fucking walk in there!"

Even more confused, Ellie looked back into the elevator and realized that literally every square inch of the small room was covered in buttons. This was officially the most confusing day in Ellie's life. How was she supposed to get in without pressing any of the buttons? And to add to her confusion, Laurel and Anna somehow weren't pressing any of the buttons at all.

Martina casually picked Ellie up bridal-style before heading into the elevator too. Somehow, even Martina wasn't even pressing any of the buttons beneath her feet. Ellie's mind hurt from overthinking all of this bullshit.

Ignoring Ellie's mental overload, Anna pressed one of the many buttons on the ceiling. The digital sign on the wall read 'Heading to level 5'. Ellie did her best to memorize the button's position for if she ever came to this weird room ever again. 

The elevator flew upwards yet somehow the momentum didn't throw them all onto the ground. Ellie could feel gravity try to up her down as they traveled upward.

When the door opened, Martina set the terrified girl in her arms down. Laurel stepped out after them and threw out her arms.

"Welcome to your office!"


	3. Chapter 3

Ellie stared at the shack in front of her in disbelief. They were on the roof, and apparently her office/level was a shack as Anna explained.

Laurel still had her arms spread wide and was grinning at Ellie expectantly. Her eyes were practically sparkling as though the crappy shack in front of her was the best thing in the world. Ellie wondered if maybe it was in Laurel's eyes.

However that didn't matter. The fact was that it would be nearly impossible for her to work in it. It looked like she couldn't even full extend her arms if she were to go inside. How was she going to fit an office in there, never the less the actual paperwork she'd have to as an intern?

The wood it was built out of looked as though it was damp and about to rot. The roof was made of a rusting metal that was once maybe actually decent. The door had a fading shade of black painted on it. Ellie couldn't even see through the glass window that was on the door.

Anna ignored her disbelieving gaze and pulled out a hoop of keys out of her pocket. Ellie watched her flip through every key until she finally found one she was apparently looking for. It was a simple golden key that was slowly rusting. As Anna made her way to the shack's door, Ellie realized that the door didn't even have a lock.

Ellie opened her mouth to voice this problem but she froze at what happened next. Anna gently pressed the key to the middle of the door. Not even a second later, a pale white light circled the key and began to mimic the patterns of animals on the door Ellie couldn't see beforehand. The more patterns mimicked, the brighter the light grew. When all of the patterns were glowing, it stayed glowing for a second before a lock formed underneath the doorknob. The was a soft 'click' before the door swung open.

Anna took the key off and tossed it to Ellie, who was still frozen. The key hitting her in the middle of the face snapped her back to the present. Laurel stifled a giggle.

Martina picked up the key before dropping it into Ellie's hand. She nudged her slightly.

"What are you waiting for? Go in."

Laurel and Anna were already inside. Laurel was standing behind the entrance, waiting for the two to make their way inside.

Ellie walked inside, not really sure what to expect. Her day so far has been weird enough already, with angels and glowing doors. For all she knew, this lead to a room full of sentient bubbles that ran a bakery or something.

Stepping inside, she was met with... an ordinary gray room that was completely empty. At first she thought this was normal until she realized that the room was bigger then the shack. Ellie ran outside to double check that the shack was actually freaking tiny. She then ran back in to look at the size of the room.

"HOLY CRAP, THIS IS LIKE HARRY POTTER!" She screamed happily.

Martina raised an eyebrow. "Did you say 'holy crap'?"

Ellie flushed and turned her nose up. "A lady does not curse."

"Well shit, guess I'm not a lady then. That must really fucking suck."

Laurel began choking in the background trying to contain her laughs. Anna patted her back while trying not to smile.

Ellie ignored the shorter woman's words and looked around her new office space. She pointed at a set of five wooden doors that looked like they were in better shape then the outside of the shack.

"Where do those lead?"

"They lead to the forests, the deserts, the tundras, the plains, and the oceans," Anna answered calmly, still trying to help Laurel stop choking.

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows. Why exactly would she need doors leading to different environments?

"So, uh... what exactly am I going to do here as an intern?"

"Well as an employee of our company," Ellie frowned at the fact Laurel used the word 'employee', "you're going to run the Animal department."

Ellie's eyes sparkled. "What kind of animals?"

"Oh you know, the usual," Anna said, waving her hand dismissively. "Birds, reptiles, fish, unicorns, the occasional dragon."

Ellie nearly burst in excitement as she said her next words- "Are elves included in there?"

"No." Ellie deflated at Anna's words. "There are other species though, like dwarfs, included your department however."

Anna paused. "We would have elves in this department but someone had to go fight their prince." Anna glared at Martina, who rose her hands defensively.

"Captain Obvious was asking for it-"

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT HIM!"

"Of course it does!"

"I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE YOU GOT THE KNIFE FROM! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM!"

Martina pointed at Anna in triumph, grinning. "Ah, but I didn't kill him."

Anna groaned and rubbed her temple. "That doesn't mean you didn't try, Martina."

"True," Martina replied, shrugging.

Ellie just stared on in confusion as the two continued their argument.

"Anyway," Laurel said, suddenly next to Ellie. Ellie jumped slightly, almost hitting Laurel in the face.

"You get to choose what you put in here! Just ask one of us at any time."

Ellie looked up at Laurel. "But how? I don't even know where any of you work at..."

Laurel blinked. "Wait, really? I thought we already told you."

Ellie shook her head.

"Oh. Well, I work on floor three on the normal elevator, then you go to floor three again at the next elevator on that floor. Martina works on floor two of the normal elevator and the top floor of the next elevator-"

"Wait, does each floor have an elevator of it's own?"

"Of course! It'd be a nightmare if we all had to share the same elevator for all of the levels. Anyway, Anna works on the floor we went through to get here!"

Ellie paled. 

"Wait... Anna is the boss?"

Laurel nodded as though this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"If she wasn't, there'd be no way we'd be able to walk through the top floor in the first place."

"Wh-what are you and Martina then?"

"Technically, we're both bosses too, it's just that Anna has a slightly high position of power then us."

"What are you two in charge of?"

"I'm in charge of Purgatory while Martina is in charge of Hell!" Laurel answered, smiling.

What so that meant... the freaking devil and God are her bosses. Plus whatever the boss of Purgatory is called.

Martina grinned at her reaction, trying to keep Anna from hitting her in the face.

"Welcome to the company!"


	4. Chapter 4

Only a week has passed since Ellie had started her internship at Afterlife Co. So far, every thing was as normal as it could get working for God as well as Satan and whatever the heck you call the person in charge of Purgatory.

She had finished decorating her new office, though so far she had only gone to Anna when she needed something. Ellie thought that going through two sets of elevators and a whole floor of people she didn't know was rather excessive just to ask for something. Besides, she didn't know if she'd be able to make it back to her office through Heaven's rather confusing elevator after asking one of the others.

Ellie sat at her new desk, shuffling through some papers someone sent asking about how to care for a deertaur. Honestly, Ellie didn't know herself but she composed a decent amount of advice from things the angels told her about the subject and what the books on her new bookshelf from Martina said. She didn't know why exactly Satan gave her a bookshelf that looked like it belonged in Wonderland but Ellie didn't complain. At least she now had a place to store her books.

She absentmindedly hummed along to 'The Heart Collector' that was playing in the background from a tab on her computer as she began to shift through a different pile of papers on her desk for any missed advice about the client's problem. Maybe this is it...? she thought, examining a paper written by some zoologist that worked on floor 3, sub level 2. Ellie shook her head and placed it down. Sadly, it was about centaurs, not deertaurs. Though they shared a common ancestor, Ellie learned from personal experience (and by that, she meant a long lecture from a very old deertaur) that the two weren't terribly similar.

A loud knocking from the door interrupted her searching. She frowned, making her way towards the front door.

Who could that be? she pondered, reaching towards the doorknob. She slowly pulled open the door-

BAM! As soon as she opened it, it slammed open. Ellie barely managed to jump aside in time. Martina rushed in, sprinting towards Ellie's desk. She skidded slightly before diving behind the covered couch near it. 

Ellie stood beside the door, staring blankly at the direction of Martina's hiding place. The sound of footsteps met her ears. She turned around to face the source, still confused as to why Satan was hiding behind her couch.

The noise belonged to the mailman. He had an easily forgettable face and features. The only thing Ellie remembered whenever she thought back to him was his uniform - a simple, blue button up shirt and grey shorts, with black boots and a grey hat that reminded her of Bert's from Mary Poppins. He gave her a smile and held out a few envelopes.

"For you, ma'am," he said, in his forgettable voice.

Ellie smiled back, taking the letters from his hand. She looked through them quickly. There was a letter from a magazine she was subscribed to, some more letters from clients, and a free coupon to a pizza place called Elvira's Pizza Plaza. Not a very creative name, but she had heard good things about it... She looked up to thank him, but he had already disappeared from existence until the next time he needed to deliver mail like usual.

Ellie turned around to face Martina's hiding spot again. She opened her mouth to speak-

"MARTINA!"

Ellie whirled around once again to see Anna furiously marching over. Looks like Satan pissed off God. Shocker.

The angry entity stormed into Ellie's office and scanned the area, her eyes narrowed. She closed her eyes for a second. Ellie slowly made her way over, not exactly sure what was going to happen next. Anna's eye snapped open and she marched over towards Ellie's couch. 

Ellie saw Anna quickly grab something that was behind there as Martina let out a squeak. Anna pulled Martina out before quickly holding Martina's arms to her sides.

"Where is it?!" Anna practically shouted at the shorter woman squirming around in an attempt to flee. 

Martina squirmed more, trying to escape from the woman's grip enough to pull her arms out of her black hoodie but Anna had an iron grip. Ellie watched Martina give up on escaping the hoodie and instead wiggled her arms free enough to poke the Latina's side.

Anna giggled slightly, instinctively moving away from Martina. The smaller woman used this to her advantage, abusing the ticklish area. The more she poked Anna, the less tighter the grip on her arms got.

Eventually God was curled in a ball on the floor as Satan repeatedly poked at her sides. Wow, that sounds weird out of context. Once she was sure that the woman beneath her was too tired to chase after her, Martina ran out of the room, waving to Ellie as she went.

Ellie listened as her boot-clad footsteps faded away before turning back to the wheezing God on the floor. Anna slowly regained her breath and shakily got up. Her navy business suit was now wrinkled, and some of her hair had fell out of her ponytail.

"W-what direction did she go?"

Ellie, still confused as to what had just happened, pointed towards the elevator. Anna groaned before making her way in the direction Ellie had pointed to. Ellie held out an arm to stop her.

"What's going on?"

Anna huffed. "She took something very important that I need to get back. May I go now?"

Ellie paused in thought for a second.

"I'll help you-" Anna brightened up slightly, "but I need a favor in return."

Anna nodded, not even bothering to ask what the intern's favor was. She grabbed Ellie's arm and rushed to the elevator, the intern in tow.

Ellie internally groaned as she realized that she had agreed to track down Satan through infinity floors and then some . This was going to be a long day.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After God knows how many hours of searching and accidentally grabbing the wrong people thinking they were Martina, Ellie and Anna had narrowed down the search to one of the last floor on Hell's level.

Surprisingly, Hell wasn't that much different from Heaven's levels. They both were unnaturally massive and had towering bookcases here and there. They even had similar office cubicles. The only differences were that while Heaven was pure white to the point it was blinding at times, Hell was pure black to the point where Ellie couldn't tell if it was just darkly colored or if her sense vision was off. Instead of just being in unnatural places, bookcases looked as though they were glitched in the walls and air, as if this was a video game with developers too lazy to fix it. Sometimes there were small fires that were completely harmless yet some were actually hurtful. The unnaturally tall rooms could suddenly lead to hallways small enough to force you into a crawl.

The people too were different. Heaven had angels that had surreal appearances yet a calming aura if you overlooked the oddities. Hell, however, had perfectly normal looking employees. They all looked like normal human beings at first. Yet if you actually focused on their appearances, you'd notice small things like how their teeth were too sharp to be a normal person's, or that the once blue or brown or green eyes were black. Every time you did anything, you had the feeling your senses were lying to you.

Ellie had a feeling of unease the whole time she was there. Anna was faring better than her but was still tired from all of the running she had done beforehand. Ellie wondered how she managed to ignore the constant paranoia the place gave off. 

They were walking down a hallway at the moment. Ellie's green shawl just barely dragged behind the duo. She swore she could hear a cat faintly meowing in the background. 

The hallway didn't hold anything special besides a door with a red knob. Honestly, Ellie almost didn't even realize it existed until Anna's grip on her arm forbade her from passing. She glance back at God.

"Is she in there?"

Anna nodded, still holding Ellie's arm.

"You go in."

"Why me?!"

"You're the only one of us that can go in unaffected! If I go in, it'll be a horrible experience for me."

"W-why would that happen if you go in but not if I do?"

"You aren't basically God. It's pretty obvious that Martina and I have opposing powers, even if we may be friends. She's more used to dealing with the pain that comes along with going into my territory, nevertheless my actually headquarters. I, however, don't really go into Hell often. I mean, it's Hell, who would? I'm not as used to it as Martina. But you're..."

Anna looked her over.

"You're just some human to her powers. You aren't a threat. You can enter as you please."

Ellie frowned. That was a stupid rule. Honestly, God needed to get used to this whole pain ordeal as Satan is if they ever needed to take something back again.

Seeing it wasn't going to help arguing about this with Anna, Ellie took a deep breath and opened the door. 

As she pushed it open, her only thought was, Welcome to hell.


	5. Chapter 5

Ellie gently closed the door, refusing to even look at the room she was now in. Who knows what horrors could be there! For all she knew, there was a corpse mutilated beyond recognition behind her... Ellie shuttered at the thought.

The door shut closed with a soft 'click'. Well, no more stalling, she thought.

Ellie slowly turned around, not sure what to expect. A torture room? Millions of demons? Death them self?

The room before her was... off to say the least.

Unlike the dark, claustrophobic hallway before it, the room was actually well-lit and spacey. Or at least, the middle area was lit. The walls were repeatedly turning from green to blue, in an almost hypnotizing motion. The ceiling was simply black similar to the office's. 

Besides the cluttered mess on the floor that made her OCD tendencies scream at her to do something, the room was actually pretty empty. In the middle was a large bed-like structure, a figure atop it. Ellie took note of the fact the mess seemed to avoid the area.

Avoiding the dark corners of the room, Ellie slowly made her way to the center. She did her best to not step on the large mess, least she startle the figure. Her brown flats made no sound on the wooden floor.

Part of the mess shifted near one of the walls. Ellie froze, terrified. Survival instincts kicked in, telling her to run, fight, anything. But she swallowed her fear. Anna needed her to do this. She couldn't afford to fail. Who knows what catastrophe the object Martina stole could release. Seeing as Martina was Satan, the thought didn't exactly comfort her fears. If anything, this whole place seemed designed to make it worse.

After a few minutes passed, Ellie took comfort in the fact that whatever caused the disturbance was, hopefully, gone. She resumed her slow travel to the figure she hoped really was Martina. Some of the harder to spot parts of the mess crunched underneath her feet. 

Finally, she made it to the center. The figure atop the bed-like structure was Martina, or at least a convincing copy. She was facing away from the taller woman. Still, Ellie hesitated, lingering at the edge of the mess. Something still made her paranoid.

She quickly scanned the area for a trap of sorts. The round, bed-like structure didn't seem threatening. It was a pure white on top that turned red at the sides. A simple, black etching was carved into it, some resembling words. If anything, it looked rather soft and welcoming...

Ellie quickly shook the thoughts out her head. This place made it hard to tell if anything in her head was actually her thoughts or the room whispering things to her. Even more paranoid, she continued her scan for danger.

Nothing in the sea of mess seemed threatening nor did the clear area, yet it did unnerve her how the mess made a perfect circle around the structure... Gingerly, she took a step into the space.

Martina's body tensed yet relaxed again so quickly Ellie wasn't sure it even happened. Ellie slowly reached out her hand, reaching for the smaller woman's shoulder. She gently pressed her hand on to Martina's shoulder-

Suddenly she was being thrown back, a sharp pain in her side. She skidded slightly on the ground, the circle somehow staying unbroken. Ellie groaned. The pain was gone but the force of the impact likely left a bruise.

She sat up and rested on her other arm to look at Martina. She was staring at Ellie, some traces of confusion across her face. Her hand was underneath her hoodie, holding something. Probably a weapon. They stared at each other in silence until Martina seemed to finally realize what happened.

"Why are you in my room?"

Ellie blinked. What should she say? 'God wants you to give back that thing you stole'? Martina probably wouldn't do what she asked if she did say that.

"I wanted to see why Anna was chasing you."

That lie sounded believable enough. After all, it did hold some truth. Ellie was genuinely curious why Anna looked so upset at Martina.

Martina's hand slowly left the inside of her hoodie. She grinned, and the atmosphere felt lighter. A pile shifted on the other side of the room.

She thrust her hand into one of her pockets, still holding eye contact with Ellie.

"This is what I took!" Martina said proudly, holding said object in front of her.

It was a simple glass sphere with a black liquid-like substance inside. Every so often part of it glittered as if it were a diamond.

Ellie looked back up at the proud deity. 

"You stole... a snow globe?"

Martina's eyes snapped open. She looked taken aback for a second before she snorted.

"I forgot you're still new here." 

She hopped off the structure and walked over to where Ellie was sitting. The mess crunched underneath her feet.

"This," she said, holding the globe in front of Ellie's face, "holds an entire universe inside it!"

Ellie stared into the globe. Now that she could properly see it, she could bear make out the shapes of galaxies within the sphere. The sparkles she thought were just for show inside revealed themselves to be thousands of stars, both dying and being born. 

A sudden thought popped into her head. Anna needed this back, right? Why didn't she just grab it now? With Martina's guard down and her grip on the sphere loose, Ellie could easily grab it from her without much of a fight and then take off. But then she remembered the mess.

Martina had Gods knows how many years of dealing with the disturbance and how to effectively get across in case of a chase. She also knew how to deal with whatever was causing all the disturbances underneath the mess. If Ellie wanted to get the sphere, she would need to get some kind of advantage over Martina. Maybe she could stall for time?

"So... why did you steal it?"

Martina shrugged and threw the sphere in the air. Ellie made a move to catch it before it broke, but Martina easily snatched it out of the air. She began to juggle it.

"I wanted to see what would happen."

"You stole a UNIVERSE just to see what would happen?"

She nodded, as if it was the most normal thing some one could do. Catching the sphere again, she made her way back to the structure and flopped backwards onto it.

"When you live for an eternity, things get boring. Event like things," she motioned to the globe, "make everything a bit more interesting."

Ellie stared at her. She slowly got up from her spot and cautiously headed back to the clearing. She felt safer near someone more powerful then what lurked in the corners, even if they were a bit chaotic. 

"Is there any other reason Anna would want this back, beside the fact it's rightfully hers?"

Martina hummed and went back to juggling the globe.

"Probably the fact there's millions and millions of lives inside this thing and one slip could mean the end to all life that dwells inside?"

Ellie froze, staring at Martina. Why did she sound so casual?

Martina must have sensed her internal questioning.

"Don't worry, I'm not that careless," she muttered.

Ellie forced herself to relax. She'd have a better chance of success if she just went along with what the deity said.

"Why not give it back to Anna?"

Martina stopped juggling. She got up and stared at the intern in front of her.

"Why?"

Ellie swallowed. She wasn't exactly sure what to say...

"I mean, you already got enough entertainment from this right? There shouldn't be any more need to continue this whole thing, seeing as Anna has given up trying to chase you."

Martina's eyes narrowed.

"I know she's outside the room."

Ellie tensed up but tried to put on a casual facade.

"I don't know what you mean-"

"I can sense her presence. I know she can sense mine, too."

Her gaze drifted from Ellie to the door.

"I want to see how long she can go before trying to get in here herself."

Anna's words rang through out Ellie's head. You're the only one of us that'll be unaffected... If I go in, it'll be a horrible experience...

"But she- That isn't-" Ellie tried to protest.

Martina's gazed snapped back to Ellie, and she laughed.

"I know she's not stupid enough to go in here herself!"

She glance towards the door.

"She'll probably bring angels down here, just for this..." she murmured aloud, thoughtfully looking at the sphere in her hands.

"If she does though, she'll be risking the safety of the angels but they'd still have a better chance of leaving unharmed then her. The others wouldn't be pleased..."

Ellie sensed a hint of concern in her words.

"It'd be less trouble in the end if you just give it back-" She trailed off as Martina turned her stare towards her.

"Okay." Ellie felt a bit of hope begin to grow.

Martina pulled her legs up and shifted into a cross legged position.

"Convince me."

Oh god. Anna's help better be worth this stress.

"Well..." she started slowly, still trying to build up a response, "if you give the globe back, there'll be less pain for Anna in the end."

"How?"

Ellie internally screamed at the person in front of her. She had to make stuff up on the spot, fast.

"Well, you said the others would be upset, right?"

Martina nodded.

"I'm going that by others, you meant the demons outside. If Anna were to storm in here with a group of angels, they'd likely get in a fight with the demons that are everywhere. It'd be impossible for them not to encounter each other."

"So? Demons and angels are always having some kind of fight going on. Why would it matter?"

Wow, I really hate her right now.

"Because... Because Anna would be there! Even if demons and angels fought before, that doesn't mean that God had been part of it!"

Martina raised an eyebrow.

"God? I view her more as the assistant."

Ellie chose not to question it.

"Since the amount of demons here would probably outnumber the amount of angels she'd bring, there'd be a chance she could get hurt..."

Even if it was unlikely, the thought sent a pit-like feeling in her stomach. What would happen if Anna was killed? What would happen to the balance between the two? Is she even killable?

An overwhelming sadness washed over her. What would she do if Anna died? Out of the three deities, Anna was the one she was closest to.

Martina's words snapped her back to the present.

"And?"

And? And what?! What else could she say?

"And-and... And please?"

A moment of silence overtook the room. The pile of mess in the corner had stopped moving.

Martina handed her the globe.

"Y'know, that's all you had to do in the first place."

Ellie almost punched her.

____________________________________________________________________________________

She walked out the door, feeling tired.

Anna immediately rushed to her side.

"Are you okay? Did you get what she took-"

Ellie didn't wait for her to finish, choosing to just shove the globe into the other woman's hands. Anna stared at it for a few seconds before addressing her again.

"So... You said you needed a favor in return, yes?"

Ellie nodded, still mentally tried.

"I need help on a proper response for one of the clients-"

"If you go to floor 324 and find Lemueo, they'll be able to answer any question you have about any animal."

So not worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, but this isn't plot-driven. It's more of a shits and giggles kind of deal.


End file.
